Conference bridges are used to facilitate conference calls between two or more conference participants. In operation, multiple calls from multiple communication devices are terminated at a conference bridge. The audio levels for the audio signals from the different communication devices are monitored and used to identify a particular one of the audio signals to provide as an output to the communication devices. In general, the communication terminal providing the audio signal having the highest level at any given time is selected as the selected communication terminal. The audio signal from the selected communication terminal is provided to the communication devices in the conference. The audio signals from the unselected communication terminals are not provided to the communication devices. Only the audio signal provided by the selected communication terminal is presented to the other unselected communication terminals. As such, none of the participants will hear any participants other than those using the selected communication terminal. To avoid distractions, the audio signal from the selected communication terminal is generally not provided back to the selected communication terminal.
Since conference bridges generally select the audio signals from the loudest participant to present to other participants, there are many situations where other participants are contending for conference time to no avail. If those participants contending for conference time do not present audio signals at a level higher than the participant using the currently selected communication terminal, they will never be selected as the selected participant. This situation is problematic for soft-spoken participants as well as participants in a conference with a relatively active and loud participant. In many instances, a louder participant may gain conference access and maintain conference access for extended periods of time, even though other participants are contending for conference access.
Further, conference calls are being employed in more diverse applications. For instance, on-line gaming groups are employing conference calls to allow multiple gamers from different locations to talk with each other during a gaming session. Given the excitement and potential for significant background music or other noise, those gamers with the louder group or environment may dominate the conference simply due to the selection process used by the conference bridge hosting the conference call. Again, the louder participants may gain conference access and maintain conferences access for extended periods of time, even though other participants want conference access.
Accordingly, there is a need for a conference bridge that provides greater conference access to those participants who are contending for conference time against louder participants or participants in relatively noisy environments. There is a further need to ensure that louder participants or participants in noisy environments do not maintain conference access for extended periods of time when other participants are contending for conference access.